


The Coming of the Rogue Prince

by melissa286



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alderaan, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Implied/Referenced Incest, Jedi Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Needs a Hug, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Marriage, Medical Procedures, Parents Han and Leia, Pregnancy, Prince Ben Solo, Sibling Incest, Skywalker Family Drama, Space Battles, Tatooine (Star Wars), Tatooine Slave Culture, The Force, The Force Ships It, Unplanned Pregnancy, Weddings, Young Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melissa286/pseuds/melissa286
Summary: Han Solo, stinging from the rejection of his marriage proposal to Princess Leia Organa shortly after the Battle of Endor, has been on a long, covert mission in the deepest reaches of space. Unaware of her advancing pregnancy, he is surprised and confused when she comes looking for him in the company of her brother, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, as well as some other old friends.This is AU/canon-divergent because I'm sure this period has been covered in books, comics, or other media. All I'm going by is Episodes I-VIII and my own warped imagination.This is also a sequel toIf It Should Come to Pass.You shouldn't *need* to read that first, but you may enjoy it more. As with that story, I've gone ahead on and started posting without the rounds of rereading and editing I would normally do with a piece of writing, so that I won't lose the nerve to put it up. I don't have as much written ahead this time, so updates may be slower going. I will probably come back at some point to try to  fix any mistakes.On indefinite hiatus due to real life. May come back and finish it later
Relationships: C-3PO & R2-D2, Chewbacca & Ben Solo, Chewbacca & Han Solo, Chewbacca & Leia Organa, Chewbacca & Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian & Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian & Han Solo, Lando Calrissian & Leia Organa, Lando Calrissian & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Ben Solo, Leia Organa & Han Solo, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Han Solo, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker, Luke Skywalker & Ben Solo, Luke Skywalker & Han Solo
Kudos: 26





	1. Yes or No, Flyboy

_Odoc System, about forty weeks after the battle of Endor_

The _Millenium Falcon_ lay in high orbit around the storm-swept planet Odoc III. The freighter, generally considered unprepossessing under the best of circumstances, was even more scarred and pitted than usual at the moment with signs of recent stress. Not that that bothered her master; as far as Han Solo was concerned it was what was under the hood that counted, and in his eyes that inner beauty shone through the wear and tear on her hull. Long weeks of intense and creative repair work after a disastrous engagement with Imperial holdouts had restored the _Falcon_ to, well, _mostly_ working order. But Solo promised himself that as soon as he could get her back to a civilized corner of the galaxy, he would treat the old girl not only to new parts and an engine overhaul, but to some long-overdue bodywork as well. 

It hadn't been so much the Imperials themselves who had inflicted the bulk of the damage to the _Falcon;_ in the end the whole faction had turned out to be little more than one fanatical Moff and a few loyal fighter squadrons guarding a massive stockpile of weapons. Han regretted not being able to bring them back to the Alliance for trial as Mon Mothma would have had wanted, but they had been determined not to be taken alive. The lion's share of damage to the _Falcon_ had come from the automated attack drones that had seemed to come out of nowhere. But they were there to keep intruders _out,_ not to keep them from leaving again - at least that was what Solo was counting on. 

The whole thing had started out so simply so many months ago, or so it had seemed at the time. Then again, "The Whole Thing Started Out So Simply, Or So It Seemed at the Time" was destined to be either the title of Han's autobiography - or his epitaph. He'd needed a job to put some distance between himself and the Rebel Alliance, and a certain Princess he'd somehow gotten in too deep with, but not so much that he couldn't plausibly casually come back on his own when she was likely to have started missing him. Rooting out some Imperials in the Zeldan system sounded like a good idea. But that had led him to a ring of spies in the Outer Rim, which led to an informant in the Sr'kaath Nebula, which led to, well, a bunch of other places that finally led to this Imperial munitions dump in the left cheek of nowhere. Turned out he was pretty good at this sort of thing, especially when the report-filing was kept to a minimum. 

But now, to the issue at hand. He scanned the cockpit one last time, pursing his lips in indecision.

"Whaddaya think, Chewie?" He asked, turning to the giant Wookie in the co-pilot's seat to his right. 

[I think I'm ready to get out of here,] replied Chewbacca in a low, throaty growl.

"Okay, then. Let's bring the rest of the systems online." Han began punching buttons, calling out to his first mate with each one. "Nav comp, check. Laser cannons, check. Guidance system, check. Communications, check."

[Nothing blew up. I like it when nothing blows up.] 

"What were you expecting to blow up?" asked Solo in an offended tone. "You sayin' whenever I fix something, it blows up?"

[Not _every_ time,] ceded Chewbacca with a conciliatory grumble. [Wait; picking up a signal on subspace.]

"Imperial?" gulped Han. "Wonder if the drones'll get 'em."

[Not Imperial. Not Alliance. Independent.] The Wookie pressed a button and a familiar, if static-obscured, voice came over the tinny speaker.

"Repeat, _Millenium Falcon,_ this is the cruiser _Ice Dragon,_ do you copy?"

"Lando?" Han replied incredulously, " _General _Lando Calrissian? What the kriff are you doing out here? Why are you flying the, the cruiser _Snow Dragon? Snapdragon?_ And what the _actual kark_ is going on?"__

There was a hearty laugh from the other end. "I hope Chewbacca's flying the _Falcon,_ because someone with a little sense ought to be in charge. I'm out here looking for you, you old pirate, I'm flying the _Ice Dragon_ because this isn't a sanctioned Alliance mission, and I already answered the last question. "

As they spoke, the _Ice Dragon_ slowly drifted into visual range. Her name was a bit on the grand side for a solid but modest craft of small to middling size for her designation. She had the look of a conservative, if well-maintained merchant vessel.

"What's your situation, Han? I'm not detecting any other ships in the area or any life forms on any planets in this system. Your last report was a while back, but it suggested activity of some kind."

"No, we're alone out here. Just a pile of munitions on the planet below, booby-trapped to hell'n back. And whatever drones are left... "

"Drones? I'm not sensing any drones. Listen, Han, we need to talk to you in person. Is it safe to land, or..."

"No! Negative! _Hagwa!_ Absolutely not, completely kriffing _unsafe_ to land," Solo cut in. "In fact, cease your approach immediately before you're in the range of the stealth security drones."

As if on cue, four black, metallic objects appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They looked like small spheres to which appendages of every conceivable shape and angle had been welded, as well as lights of random colors, arrangements, and blinking rates and rhythms. They resembled a visual definition of the word "overkill," and Han was sure there were two more than he had encountered on his own way in.

"Dammit! Lando! Get back! Evasive maneuvers!"

[Time to test weapons,] Chewie roared, springing from his seat. [You got this here?]

"Yeah, I got things under control. Gotta break orbit to get in firing range, but we'll hang back as far as we can. Get up to that turret!"

Lando, or whoever was manning the _Ice Dragon's_ limited weapons array, was doing a fairly decent job against the drones, but the little ship was seriously outgunned. It wasn't long, however, before the _Falcon_ joined the fray to even up the odds. Han prayed to whatever deity might be listening that the recent repairs to her guns, thrusters, and shields had been adequate to the occasion. He and Chewie called information and instructions back and forth, their long years of working and fighting together having caused them to not only develop a highly effective verbal shorthand but to anticipate each other's actions a good deal of the time.

What felt like only a few minutes later, Han was gratified to see that his theory about the drones had probably been correct - if a ship managed to survive long enough to slip through their perimeter, they weren't going to follow her to the planet. It looked like the _Dragon_ had sustained some damage, but that the _Falcon_ had been able to hold off enough drones to adequately cover her passage through. Han flipped the switch to open a channel to the other vessel.

 _"Falcon_ to _Dragon;_ what's your status? You all in one piece over there?"

"Yes and no," came the reply. "She's gonna blow, my friend. And my only escape pod is kriffed."

[Enough time to dock with us?] roared Chewbacca anxiously. 

Han turned to him, full of panic. _"Dock with the Falcon?_ Hey, let's not be hasty. No sense blowin' up _two_ ships."

"I think I got a few minutes to dock and offload before this crate blows and takes everything nearby with it," said Lando, his voice over the comm sounding way more casual than Han felt the situation warranted. "Once we're aboard the _Falcon_ we can either skedaddle or blast the _Dragon_ away safely.

"Offload? We?" Han snapped. "Who and what are you bringing on my ship at the risk of blowin' her to bug dust?"

"I got two passengers, two droids, and three supply containers," came the reply, "and yes, all three containers are essential."

[I've got a bad feeling about this,] grumbled Chewbacca. 

Han punched a few buttons with a little more force than strictly necessary. "Me, too, buddy, me, too. But what are we gonna do? It's Lando, and whatever poor bastards were dumb enough to trust him." he muttered. "OK, OK, docking procedure initiated at this end. You are free to attach. And make it snappy, huh? We just got the old girl patched back together."

Han followed Chewbacca to the airlock at the docking ring at a brisk pace, his long legs nearly matching stride with the towering Wookie. It struck him that two passengers, two droids, and a few supplies was the cargo he'd agreed to haul from Tatooine to Alderaan more than five years ago, unwittingly starting a new and inconceivable chapter in his life. Sometimes he didn't even feel like the same man who'd walked into that cantina in Mos Eisley, cocksure of what the rest of his life was going to look like. What a naïve chump _that_ guy had been! 

Popping the hatch open, the pair was confronted by three large, vaguely coffin-shaped cargo containers - one emblazoned with Imperial symbols - stacked onto an antigrav cart. The two of them easily and quickly steered it into the corridor and parked it against the bulkhead. Next came the familiar metallic forms of R2-D2 and C-3P0. The former tooted a brief greeting as he wheeled himself briskly past the pilot and mate, and the latter performed a formal half-bow. 

"Greetings, General Solo! And Chewbacca! What a pleasure it is to see you again after such a long time away. I am certain you are eager to hear all the latest... Oh! I say!" The protocol droid yelped in surprise as Chewbacca picked him up under the arms, swung him around, and set him down firmly on the deck a few yards away as if he weighed nothing.

"Can it, Shiny," barked Han. "Plenty of time to catch up later."

"Oh! Yes, certainly." The lights in Threepio's ocular units blinked three times in rapid succession.

The last to board were three humanoids. Lando, tall and dapper in civilian clothing (a well-cut suit and matching double-skirted cape of midnight blue), was followed by two smaller figures: one in a voluminous, hooded black robe, and another similarly cloaked in pale gray. Chewie slammed the button to close the airlock and detach from the _Dragon,_ which was now showing outward signs of her imminent combustion. He loped away in the direction of the cockpit, to put as much distance as possible between the two ships.

"Thanks for the rescue, pal!" said Lando with a grin, clasping Solo's hand and clapping him on the shoulder. "I owe you big time!"

Han snorted. "I'll add it to your tab, you old rascal. But hey, Lando, what the hell is this all about? This is a pretty crazy stunt, even for you." 

He followed his old friend's gaze to the passengers. The black-robed figure raised gloved hands to pull back its hood, revealing the smiling but exhausted-looking face of Luke Skywalker. "Hello there. You're a hard man to find these days, you know that, Han?"

"Luke! Buddy!" Solo grinned. "I should've known you'd be behind any plan this insane!" The smile fell from his face as it dawned on him who the second hooded traveler must be. He swallowed deeply as the gray hood was pulled back from the regal head of Princess Leia Organa. Seeing her after all these months felt like a punch in the gut. She looked as tired as her brother did, but nothing could diminish the glow of her presence. Han quickly snapped his mouth shut as he realized he didn't know how long it had been hanging open. Eyes like the dark reaches of deep space met his from beneath a crown of braids he could feel his fingers itching to undo and comb through the dark, rippling waves. He flashed his trademark crooked grin and racked his brain for something devastatingly witty to say to break the ice. But all he heard coming out of his mouth was,

"Hey, Your Worship. Guess you missed me after all."

A noise somewhere between a huff and a cough came from somewhere in Leia's throat. It was stupidly satisfying to hear.

"Of course, you coulda just called," he continued. "You didn't have to trash a private ship to find me; not that I'm not flattered..."

She cut him off with an annoyed voice and a dismissive wave of one dainty hand. "A personal message to a ship on radio silence, on an extended covert mission? You know better than that. We weren't even sure you were still out there, after your last report."

"Then this really _isn't_ Alliance business?" he asked, brow furrowed. "What the kark else could have brought the lot of you all the way out here? You more anxious than usual to get yourselves killed?"

"Maybe we should go and sit down," Lando interjected in soothing tones. "It's been quite a..."

Leia waved him away with a sigh and a roll of the eyes. "The last time I saw you, you asked me to marry you."

"Yeah..." Han wasn't sure if he believed his ears. Maybe _he_ was the one losing his mind, rather than everybody else. He didn't miss the uneasy glances Luke and Lando exchanged before fixing their eyes on the bulkhead and deck, respectively. "And as I recall, you said you 'needed time.'"

"Well, I've had it," said Leia in clipped tones. "A lot of it. Much more than I expected, or _anyone_ expected, for that matter. Look, are you still interested in getting married, or aren't you?"

Han stepped back, raising his hands and furrowing his brow. "So that's what all this is? You hired or bought a ship, rounded up your family and, uh... friends, without trying to get a coded message through official channels, tracked us down halfway across the galaxy, trashed your ride, and nearly got all of your asses killed, and just because you suddenly decided you wanted to have a royal wedding, right now? I gotta tell ya, sweetheart, I never had you pegged for that kind of wild romantic. I ain't sayin' I mind, necessarily, ya know, it's just..." 

"It isn't really something I could ask over a secure, coded official channel, now is it?" she interrupted, her voice rising in irritation. "So is it yes or no, flyboy?" 

Luke and Lando were pointedly fiddling with the cargo crates, backs deliberately turned to the arguing couple. Threepio stared openly, while the two humans stole occasional, surreptitious glances over their shoulders.

Fishlike, Han's mouth opened and closed a few times while his brain tried to catch up. "Wull... sure. I mean, yes, that is. Yeah. But I just don't get it. What's goin' on here, Your Highness?"

"I would have been fine waiting _another_ eight months," she sighed, reaching for the fastening of her cloak. "But I'm not really on my own schedule anymore, and this person..." She grimaced and gestured to the heavily swollen abdomen revealed by the opening of her heavy outer robe. "...doesn't seem to want to listen to reason and be patient."

Han could have sworn the deck under his feet was moving. Spinning, to be precise. Rocking? He cocked his head to one side and then the other, every emotion he was capable of feeling passing over his face in turn. (Shock and confusion probably made a few more appearances than the others.) He pointed a trembling finger in the general direction of her midsection.

"Is that... you're..."

"That's right, Ace," she smirked. Then her expression immediately softened, love glowing from her dark eyes. "I really am sorry for springing it on you like this. Nothing about the way this is happening is ideal, but we _are_ working against time." She reached for his hand, giving it a warm squeeze with both of hers. "I think I could use that seat after all."

Her eyes wordlessly met Luke's as she let go of Han's hand. The young Jedi immediately left the crates, put an arm firmly around his sister's waist, and led her gently away toward the main cabin. A widely grinning Lando clapped Han across the back, simultaneously bringing him out of his confused reverie and nearly knocking him off his feet before steering him off in the young people's wake with a stream of jovial conversation. 

C-3P0 looked around himself for assistance; finding none, he let out a small, dejected, "Oh," and began slowly and awkwardly steering the cart of supplies in the same direction.


	2. To Search My Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback, two dreams, a ton of dialogue, and angsty angst.

_The cruiser_ Ice Dragon, _a few days earlier_

The dream always ended the same way. Dream, or perhaps vision - Luke couldn't swear he had been asleep every time he'd seen it, but predictable sleep patterns hadn't exactly been a regular feature of the past few months. Or maybe the times he'd seen it while awake had merely been vivid memories of the previous night's dreaming. Meditation, in the occasions when he's managed to overcome his own procrastination and ambivalence, hadn't brought any clarity on the subject.

The lead-up to the conclusion varied. Sometimes he would be fighting nameless, faceless enemies, shadows wielding light sabers in an endless train of different colors. Other times he would stumble blindly and aimlessly through mazes of corridors, some strange, some oddly familiar, sometimes running from an invisible pursuer and sometimes chasing an unknown quarry. At times he would be plodding through a deluge of rain, snow, or falling white ash from an unseen conflagration.

But the end was always the same. He stood in the dark of night, heart pounding and saber drawn, clutched in one hand of flesh and blood and another stripped down to its bare metal skeleton. The blade pointed downward toward a young man, no, a boy, glaring up at him with Leia's dark eyes in a pale face twisted with fear and rage.

"They never told you about your father," Luke heard himself say in a voice that sounded old and tired.

"They told me enough," the boy would reply through gritted teeth. "You betrayed my father!"

"No," Luke would hear himself say as he raised his glowing blade. "I am your father.'

He woke as always, gasping for breath and with the sensation of falling through cold air. 

"Luke? Luke, are you all right?" Leia gently squeezed his arm as she called him softly. She pressed the remote control that raised the lights in the _Ice Dragon's_ small passenger cabin. Luke sat up straighter on the wide, cushioned banquette that wrapped around two sides of the cabin and served as both seating and bedding. The Princess, who had been lying on her side under a soft tapestry of the same material as the beige upholstery with her head in his lap, pulled herself up into a reclining position. She looked into his drawn face and wiped his brow with one small, cool hand.

"Another bad dream?" she asked with a concerned frown. 

"Yeah, I guess so. Nothing for you to worry about." He patted her hand absently.

"But I do. You've been so busy looking after me you haven't been taking care of yourself."

"You just look after the little prince." They shared a chuckle at the nickname Leia had come up with for the baby, one morning when she'd been spectacularly sick at a particularly inconvenient time. "The little prince's" lack of polite manners had been a running joke between them ever since. "Did you get any sleep?" he asked. "From the way you were tossing and turning earlier, I don't think I've been the only one having weird dreams."

Leia sat fully upright and began folding the blanket. "Sometimes I dream I'm giving birth to a monster that's eating me from the inside out, but from what I hear that's not so unusual."

"Oh, sure," Luke deadpanned, "I have that dream all the time."

"Yeah, every time you've been pregnant," she retorted with a smirk. "But there is another dream..." she trailed off, looking down at her hands as they plucked at the edge of the blanket in her lap.

"Tell me."

She shook her head. "No, it's silly. Just worrying about nothing, that's all. Probably indigestion; Gods know I've had enough of that."

"Then tell me and we can have a good laugh about it together."

She sighed. "Just let it go, OK?" She met his unwavering, ocean-blue gaze for a long moment and knew he wasn't going to be satisfied until she confided in him. 

"All right, Master Jedi. You know, you're going to have to teach me that no-blinking stare one of these days." She took a deep breath and continued. "So, I'm in a medical center. Everything about it is just... strange, and somehow I know it's on a planet I've never been to before. The lights are so bright I can't see past the end of the bed, and I'm trapped under a surgical shield. I've had the baby, but instead of the little prince it's twins - twin boys. One fair and one dark, tiny and... so, so beautiful." She paused, squeezing the folded blanket. "There's a med droid there, but it's not a 21-B; it's shiny and new, but it looks old-fashioned somehow. The babies are crying, but the droid won't give them to me. I'm fighting as hard as I can to get to them, but I can't get out from under the shield. And then... then there are two men there. I don't know if they've been there all along or if they just came in. I can't see their faces, but one is all in white and the other in black. The droid hands one of the babies to each man. And I don't know who's speaking, but then someone says only one of them can live, and I have to choose which one. If I don't choose, they both die. And that's when I wake up."

"Oh, Leia. I'm so sorry." 

They embrace for a long moment, and when they release each other there are tears on both their faces. She tries to laugh it off, blotting first her own eyes and then his with a silk handkerchief that seems to appear out of nowhere.

"See what happens when I have too much time to sit and think? I know it's not real, and I know nothing like that is going to happen. Hormone-induced melodrama with a side of nothing better to worry about." She ran a hand over her protruding stomach. "There's one absolutely fine, perfect, _enormous_ baby in there, and nobody's taking him anywhere."

They sat quietly, the unspoken tension lying like a mountain fog in the air between them. Finally, Luke broke the silence.

"Maybe we're..."

Leis stood with an exasperated sigh, pacing restlessly across the small cabin. "Luke, we've been through this over and over, I don't like it any more than you do, but you know this is the way it has to be."

He shook his head. "But keeping secrets is what got us here in the first place."

"The two situations are completely different," she snapped back, turning to face him. "Nobody benefits from knowing, and everybody gets hurt. Especially him." She looked down at where her hands were folded across her abdomen, her skin pale against the soft slate-gray wool of her loose tunic. "Han is the father because he has to be," she continued, softly but firmly. "Information he doesn't know can't be tricked or forced out of him. There can't be any testing because the non-existence of data is the only thing that prevents a data trail. That's just what life is like in the public eye. You've only experienced it for a short time, but it's been my entire life."

She opened a cupboard built into the white bulkhead of the cabin and took out two protein bars. She unwrapped them both and handed one to Luke, who mumbled his thanks and absently chewed at a corner. Leia sat back down at his side and they ate in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again.

"Before I was born, there was a colleague of my father's in the old Republic Senate," she began slowly. "I've been thinking a lot about her lately. She was a fellow Senator, a strong ally, and a good friend of both my parents. She concealed a pregnancy, like I've been doing, with no father in the picture. When she couldn't hide it any longer, someone started a rumor that she and my father... that they were more than friends, and that the baby was his."

Luke stopped picking crumbs off his lap and looked at her. Her dark eyes sparked with anger. "What happened to her?" he asked. "How did it turn out?"

"She and the baby died before she could give birth. The circumstances were just mysterious enough to keep the gossip going. I first heard the story when I was five years old; there were certain people who took pleasure in reminding my parents about it." She began to rub her arms, and Luke immediately draped the blanket back around her shoulders. "And this was in the days when the Empire had the press completely locked down. Hells, nobody believes in the freedom of information more than I do, but these days it would be a free-for-all."

She turned toward him and took his large hands in her own small ones. "I know that back on Tatooine we said we would tell Han as soon as we could, and that he would understand. But I think we've gone beyond the point where it would do more good than harm. And you - do you really think you'd feel differently about..." she looked down at the expanse of her tunic, and then back into her brother's eyes. "About _him,_ depending on the results of a test?"

"No. No, I've had plenty of time to search my feelings, and I know that that part of it doesn't matter. It's just hard for me to keep _more_ secrets, after everything we've been through."

"I know. I hate it, too." She pulled him close, and they held each other in a long, tight embrace. When they finally let go, he sat back, looked at her with a frown, and began to brush at her clothing.

"Look at you! Covered with crumbs!"

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are; you're a complete mess. What, were you raised in a gundark's nest?"

"Are you my nanny now or something?" She shook out her tunic.

"Well, now you're just getting them all over the floor. I can't take you anywhere, can I?"

"I guess you'll just have to find another date for the barn dance, Farmer Skywalker."

She finally made him laugh. By the Force, how she'd missed that sound!


	3. Let's Get Going!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang have a sit-down and discuss the plan of action. There are cookies.

Swept along the corridors of the _Falcon,_ Han rapidly began to feel he was losing what little control he had over the current situation. He couldn’t stand another minute of Lando’s jovial prattle.

“So, what happened to being a reformed responsible character, _General?_ You thought all this was a good idea?”

Lando chuckled deeply. “You have no idea how responsible I’m about to become, you old space dog.”

“What the kriff is that supposed to mean?” Calrissian simply shook his head in reply. Han charged on, calling out to the pair ahead. “Hey, Princess, I thought you were s’posed to be the level-headed one. You’re always tellin’ me how crazy and half-baked my plans are, but this takes the cake, sweetheart.” No response. “And what about you, big brother? You OK with this, huh? This is how you take care of her?”

By this time they had reached the main cabin. Luke settled his sister into a seat and turned to Han with tired eyes. “You think I get to tell her what to do? Do you not remember the Death Star at all? It was either come along or let her go alone.” A very un-Jedi-like impatience crept into his voice as he continued with a hand on each hip, “You know, I was pretty sure you weren’t dead, but for all we know you might have been in some prison somewhere, or wounded, or the Force knows what. I’m beyond happy to see you two, but just... Threepio!” he called back to the trailing droid. “You got those containers OK?” Shaking his head, he disappeared back down the corridor.

Lando pulled a still-fuming Han aside and spoke in a low voice, “I did try to talk them out of it, you know. Have they ever teamed up on you before? I don’t know if it’s Jedi magic or just sheer stubbornness...”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Han replied wearily with a wave of his hand. “Guess I left them to their own devices too long. It’s a wonder they’re still in two pieces.”

“Three pieces pretty soon, my friend.” 

Arguing over the details had allowed Han a few minutes to not think about the enormity of his impending fatherhood. Figuring a mundane task to keep his hands busy would give him a few more, he headed for the galley. He started up a pot of caf and rooted around in the cupboard for five usable mugs. Three of them even had handles! “Nothin’ but the best for my passengers,” he muttered, wiping the dusty ones off on his pantleg. He pulled the battered old biscuit tin off the high shelf and plunked it and the cups on a square of singed deck plating that was enjoying a new life as a tray. When the caf was done, he added the pot to the load and carried it back to the main cabin, where four pairs of eyes stared at him from around the dejarik table.

“I thought it’d be nice to have a bite to eat, sit and talk, get comfortable, make a plan,” he soothed in his best nothing-is-wrong-why-would-you-think-anything-is-wrong voice. “There we go.” He eased the makeshift tray onto the table, passing out the mugs and making sure the passengers got the ones with the handles. “This is nice.” He eased onto the edge of the seat beside Leia, holding himself uncomfortably in position by bracing his outside leg. He snagged an iced spice cookie from the tin and leisurely dunked it in his mug.

“So!” he began brightly, popping the soggy morsel into his mouth and swallowing. “I figure Leia can get settled into the passenger quarters, we break orbit and slip past the drones, then we look for the nearest friendly system with a decent medical center, then once we get there we can ask around about a magistrate whose authority will be recognized in the new Republic. Sound like a plan?”

He looked around the table. Chewbacca was delicately nibbling around the edge of a pink-sprinkled confection; Luke had a ring-shaped shortbread stuck on the tip of his finger. From somewhere, Lando had produced a spoon and a sweet-spice shaker, and was paused mid-stir. Everyone was silent for a moment until Leia cleared her throat.

“That’s a very good plan, Han. It’s a great plan,” she said.

Han sighed deeply, his shoulders sagging. “We’re not gonna use my plan, are we?”

“No, not this time.”

“You’re already in labor, aren’t you?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Chewie roared merrily, smacking a giant paw on the table and making the cups jump.

“We have been able to slow it down so far with meditation,” offered Luke matter-of-factly before draining his mug.

“Oh, well, that’s all right then,” muttered Han. “That changes _everything.”_

“So, the first thing we need to do is temporarily sign the _Falcon_ over to Lando...” Leia began.

“Lando? _Lando?_ In case you missed it, sweetheart, the last ship Lando captained is currently a lovely cloud of space dust.” He pointed somewhere in the general direction of "out there."

Lando set his cup down, clearly affronted. “Hey, Threepio!” he yelled out, “What are the odds of that happening twice in a row on the same day?”

“Threepio, if you answer that you’re going home in a bucket!” Han roared. “Why do I need to sign the ship over to Lando?”

Leia rolled her eyes. “Because the ship’s captain can marry us, before the baby comes. I know, it doesn't change anything between us, and he'll have a family and a title either way, but people being what they are, it will be easier for him and for us this way. Especially since we're all in the public eye.”

“Okay, sure. But Chewie could...”

She shook her head. “The officiant has to be able to speak the same language as the petitioners. It’s not fair, but it’s a precept recognized in most systems.” 

“Luke...”

“I need Luke for the Jedi childbirth thing.”

Han frowned. “The Jedi what with the who now?”

“It’s not specifically for childbirth,” Luke interjected calmly. “It’s a general technique for focus and pain control. I came across it in my research a little while back, and I think it’ll work great.”

“And if it doesn’t, I will personally rip your liver out and feed it to you,” Leia added around a chocolate sandwich cookie.

Luke continued, choosing to ignore the sincere tone of his sister’s threat. “The container with the Imperial markings is a medical droid we, ah, commandeered...”

“Stole,” interrupted Leia.

“Artoo and Threepio are getting it set up at the first aid bunk now."

Han gaped “This is insane! How do you know it’s gonna work? What do you even know about _any_ of this, anyway?”

Luke fished another shortbread out of the tin. “I’ve actually attended a lot of births. Well, not _human_ ones. But I’ve delivered more than my share of livestock.” He chuckled. “I remember this one time, there was this bantha calving twins...”

Leia groaned. “If I have to hear one more of your thrilling adventures in the whelping box...”

“Birthing stall.”

She continued, unabated, “ _Birthing stall,_ I am going to tear off your head and stuff it down your hayseed neck.”

“Just, just, just let me get this straight,” stammered Han, waving his hands around. “Your plan consists of Captain Scupper over here, a Navy surplus med droid straight out of mothballs, and, and the best _Jedi veterinary midwife_ in the Outer Rim, and it’s still somehow better than _my_ plan?” 

Luke and Leia nodded in unison. Lando hid his laugh behind his cup, and Chewie gurgled something unintelligible.

Han pushed himself up, took a few paces, then turned and threw his hands up in the air, yielding to the inevitable. “Okay then! What are you all waiting around for? Let’s get going!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story isn't quite flowing as smoothly as I'd hoped; I've had bits of it written for months, but writing bits to connect up all the bits is the tricky bit! And real life is pretty brutal right now, so I guess I should be happy it's getting written at all! But you know how it goes - it's there in your head and this is the only way to get it out.
> 
> When Han is around, there's always got to be an element of humor, and it's proving a little harder than I thought to get the tone quite right.


	4. Everything I Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another sentimental flashback. Offscreen smut.

_Chandrilla, Three Months Earlier_

A thousand whispers can be as loud as a scream. There were at least a thousand whispering beings packed into every corner of the low-walled garden in a nature preserve just outside the limits of the capital city of Chandrilla. Uncounted more were packed into temporary bleachers that overlooked it - representatives and spectators from seemingly every race and world. The galaxy had just begun to rebuild, but many had seen fit to take the time for this elaborate yet inadequate ceremony. Holocameras and microphones surrounded a temporary platform that stood under two spreading trees. Luke had found himself a spot to the left of the stage where he could be close but unobtrusive. He took long, deep breaths and centered himself, focusing on keeping out the intense emotions of the multitudes around him. He felt the presence in the Force he had been waiting for, and opened his eyes just as the din died down to a hushed silence. Even the birds had decided to sing elsewhere today. The crowd parted as if blown apart by an unseen wind, to admit the passage of Princess Leia Organa, leaning heavily on the arm of General Carlist Rieekan as she made her way to the platform. The General led her up the short set of steps, kissed her gently on the cheek, and went to join the small group of Alderaanian elders seated upstage. 

Leia stepped up to the transparent lectern. She pulled the blue Alderaanian stole that had covered her head and draped it across the shoulders of her flowing white robes. Luke recognized the tiny white flowers woven into her high crown of braids from a picture she had once shown him, of the trellis that had grown beneath her bedroom window in one of the royal residences. It struck him, as always, how her regal bearing made her appear much taller than she actually was. She looked around the crowd, making contact with as many eyes as possible. He smiled softly when her dark eyes met his, and he sent her a message of strength and support through the Force. She began to speak in the rich, sonorous tones she had perfected in the Imperial Senate. 

"My friends, please accept my deepest thanks for taking the time from our great struggle to join us in this moment of celebration and mourning. I hereby dedicate this memorial garden to the honored dead of Alderaan, who gave their lives in the cause of freedom for the galaxy. Let those of us left behind find comfort and purpose here among the trees and flowers that once grew on our beloved world. Let every son and daughter of Alderaan, and our children, and our children's children who will never walk its lands come here and be, if only for a moment, home once more."

She paused for a moment, and the assembly thundered with applause.

"We thank the many generous donors who have contributed samples of flora native to Alderaan, without whom this endeavor could not have been possible. Their names and donations are listed on the plaque beside the entry gate. I have come here today with a personal contribution of my own."

She reached behind her neck and unclasped the silver chain that held a large, oval locket at her throat. She held it up for the crowd to see.

"This pendant contains locks of hair from the last Queen and Viceroy of Alderman - my late parents, Breha and Bail Organa. I have brought it to be interred here, in this place, as a symbol for all the graves of our beloved dead, who should have been buried in their native soil to rest in the company of their ancestors."

There was a moment of silence and a collective gasp before the applause started again. The wave of sadness he felt was almost too much for Luke to bear. Leia leaned down and handed the necklace to a representative from the nature preserve's administration, who laid it reverently in a small vault set into the ground before the platform. Two more officials sealed the opening with a slab of white stone engraved with the crest of the House of Organa. Leia drew herself up to her full height again and continued her address.

"I have been asked by many of you if I will consent to be crowned Queen of Alderaan in Exile. Your wishes do me great honor, but I must regretfully decline. We will remember the past, we will honor the past, we will celebrate the past, but we _must not live_ in the past. I will continue to serve my people and their interests to the best of my abilities and resources as we move forward as citizens of a new Galactic Republic. I do not know what the future holds, or exactly what my part in it will be in the years to come. But one thing that will never change is my love for you all."

If there was a dry eye in the crowd, Luke couldn't see it. Above all the other emotions swirling around him, he felt an overwhelming pride in and love for the small woman on the stage. His thoughts were interrupted by six words he felt in his mind: _Get me out of here - now!_

Luke rushed to the steps and held out his hand, leading his sister back down to ground level. He took her right arm as Rieekan took her left, and together they formed a sort of shield to get her back through the crowd toward where their speeder sat waiting. She smiled and nodded at individuals as they passed, occasionally calling out a greeting or a few words of thanks. Every once in a while, a few words would leap out to Luke's ears from the general hubbub: _so that's the long-lost brother... Jedi Knight... out of nowhere... Death Star..._ They hadn't made any official public appearances together, but word of their relationship had been steady gossip since the celebrations at Endor.

At last they reached the closed speeder, the men helping Leia aboard before climbing in after her. She collapsed on the front-facing seat, with Luke beside her and Rieekan facing them. The latter murmured some directions to the driver before closing the transparasteel panel between the cockpit and passenger seats. 

"Leia, are you all right?" asked Luke, trying to keep the worry out of his voice.

"I'm just tired. _Exhausted._ I don't think my feet could have lasted another minute." In fact, she had already slipped her shoes off and propped her feet on the opposite seat beside the General. "Breakfast reception. Gala luncheon. Embassy tour. Receiving line. If I ever do anything like this again, I'm wearing a hoverlift under my dress."

Both men tried to suppress a laugh at the mental image. Rieekan had been a godsend; he and Mon Mothma were the only people Luke and Leia had trusted with the reason for her upcoming leave of absence from the provisional congress. Her advancing pregnancy was already obvious to Luke, but he supposed that to the unknowing eye it might not be evident through the traditional robes worn by most statesmen and -women. He was glad she would no longer be pushing herself so hard. She was the most capable person he'd ever known, granted, but he hadn't been able to keep himself from constantly worrying over her well-being. He was already on reserve status from the Alliance Fleet, and he had been confining his ongoing research into the Jedi Order to short trips where he wouldn't be away from her too long, or where it was safe for her to accompany him. Still, he wasn't quite sure he was prepared for the amount of time they were about to be spending mostly alone together. He reached over, gently took her hand and wrist, and began slowly massaging a pressure point, She visibly relaxed as she discussed last-minute details with her old family friend. "I'll keep you apprised over my secure personal channel of any communication from Solo, or any news of his general whereabouts," said Rieekan. "And you should be receiving weekly digests of the top issues in Congress."

"Thank you, Carlist. And I'll keep you posted about our progress. I don't know what we would have done without you."

The General nodded. "Your family means everything to me, your Highness. Your well-being is the most important thing right now." He looked at Luke, his dignified expression turning to a grin. "I just can't get used to that beard, Skywalker. You look like a different person."

Luke stroked the several-months' growth. "If by that you mean I don't look fifteen years old anymore, thank you," he replied drily.

By now they had arrived at the spaceport hotel; the twins' baggage should have already been transferred from their suite to their waiting transport. "I'll be waiting to hear from you," Rieekan said, clasping both their hands. "Give my regards to Solo. And may the Force be with you." 

The passage of a few hours found them aboard a freighter bound for the Outer Rim. The captain had left them alone in the sole, small passenger cabin; R2-D2 guarded the door from the passageway outside, while C-3PO recharged in a nearby chamber built for the purpose. The twins sat meditating to the low, soothing hum of the engines, Luke cross-legged on the floor and Leia on the edge of the bed. Neither had wanted to wait for a ship with separate accommodations to become available, and it wasn't like they hadn't chastely shared a bed many times due to cramped quarters, cold temperatures, or safety concerns. And in their recent travels outside Alliance territory, they had pretty much given up on constantly correcting all the strangers who assumed they were a couple and treated them accordingly. They were both already in their sleep clothes, as standard night cycle was well underway and keeping as regular a schedule as possible cut down on the myriad little complaints that had been plaguing Leia's body as the months went by.

 _Ben... Master Yoda... Father..._ Luke called out in his mind. _Come to me. Speak to me._ It should have been enough to seek the wisdom and clarity of the Living Force, but he desperately wanted to speak to his father or his old teachers during this time of uncertainty. _Let go,_ he told himself. _I am the air. I am the light. I am the shadow. I am the dust. I am the wind. I am nothing. I am all things._ He continued to drift downward into a state of immense relaxation, and smiled as he felt his sister's consciousness sink down alongside his own. Even when one of them was agitated, it was usually easier to meditate together. Eventually, as if by mutual agreement they simultaneously opened their eyes and eased back into the material world.

Leia slipped under the covers and held out her hand. "Are you coming to bed? I don't know if I can sleep, but we should both try."

Luke stretched high and bent low, feeling the tension ease from his back. "Scoot over, then." He dimmed the lights, laid his outer robe over the foot of the bunk, and crawled in beside her, facing outward. She cuddled up behind him, wedging her ice-cold feet between his. He shook his head but decided not to say anything. Ever since Hoth, he'd never taken being warm for granted.

"You know," he said cautiously, "We don't have to do this. I can still message ahead and have a local company take care of it. Or we can get the captain to drop you off somewhere to wait. So many memories, and not all of them good..."

"Shh," she interrupted. "You need to do this yourself, and I am going to be there with you, and that's the end of it. I know that you feel guilty that the place where you grew up is still there when mine isn't, but you can stop that right now. You were there with me today, and I don't know if I could have gone through it by myself."

He rolled over to face her, and held her chin in two fingers. "Of course you could. You can do anything."

"Not alone. Not without you." She leaned in and kissed him softly on the mouth. "We're both stronger together." His heart felt as if it was stopping and beating wildly at the same time, as they looked into each other's eyes. She kissed him again, this time more deeply and slowly until the floodgates burst and lips and tongues sought and melted into each other with a kind of desperation.

With a low groan and a supreme effort he pulled away, squeezing his eyes shut and struggling to catch his breath, trying to ignore the effect the kiss was having on his body. _"Oh, Leia, what are we doing?"_

She propped herself up on one arm, reaching out with her other hand and softly stroking his hair, his beard, his brow, his neck. "Aren't you tired of feeling alone? Of feeling like we're cut off from the rest of the human race? Like we're waiting for something that we know may never happen? Like a little happiness is just too damn much to ask of the universe?" She bit her lip and closed her eyes. "Luke, the time isn't that far off when the paths we're on are going to carry us away from each other, for who knows how long? After everything we've been through, everything we're going through now, what possible harm can tonight do?"

Much later, they lay naked and exhausted, tangled in each other's arms. Her head was cradled in the crook of his shoulder, one pale arm and one long, dark braid draped across his chest. He absently stroked the back of her neck as she ran one now-warm foot up and down his leg. He marveled at the new curves of her body, ripe and full like some exotic fruit. He felt like he could luxuriate in this soft warmth for the rest of his life.

"I can see why the Jedi Order discouraged this," he drawled, placing a soft kiss on the top of her head. "Between two people sensitive to the Force, it could easily become addictive."

Leia sighed deeply and contentedly. "Feeling what _you_ feel, feeling you feel what I feel, and on and on... it's like two mirrors face to face, going on to infinity. Before we knew... well, _before,_ I thought it was just your senses projecting onto both of us. You're right; who'd get anything done? The Temple could have fallen down around them and who'd have noticed?" They both giggled at the thought. 

"I wonder..." he began, trailing off.

"I love the way your voice sounds with my ear right here, where I can feel the vibrations. What do you wonder?" 

"Nothing. Nothing, really."

She sat up, reached for the carafe on the bedside table, filled the cup next to it, and drank deeply. Refilling it, she handed it to Luke.

"I've known you for a long time, Skywalker, and I know you don't go around wondering about _nothing."_

He sipped the water slowly, the habits of nineteen years in the desert dying hard. "It's just, I wonder if this is why Ben and Yoda and... why they won't appear to me. I haven't seen or heard any of them since Endor."

Flopping onto her back, she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm surprised they have the nerve to show their faces at all. Especially _him."_ She smiled bitterly. "Sometimes I pretend that I can have you without having _him."_

Turning his head to face her, he waited until she finally met his eyes. He reached up and wound a finger in her braid. "I hope I never do anything you can't find it in your heart to forgive me for."

The following afternoon, as the worst of the day's heat had begun to ebb over the Dune Sea of Tatooine, the speeder they had hired at the Mos Espa spaceport came to a stop near the burned-out wreckage of the Lars moisture farm. Luke powered the craft down and sat in silence for a moment. "It really is beautiful in its own way," Leia remarked as she gazed out across the shining golden sands.

"It suppose it is. No place has a monopoly on beauty or ugliness." Even the 'slimy mudhole' of Dagobah had grown on him before he'd left there. He popped open the doors, jumped to the ground, and came around to help his companion down. There was just enough breeze to keep the heavy air moving, without blowing hot sand into their faces. Leia pulled the pale blue gauzy scarf she'd been wearing away from her mouth and nose. They had both traded the formal clothes they'd worn yesterday for loose, white linen desert gear. Luke also uncovered his face and returned Leia's sudden smile. "What is it?"

"You know, the beard really does suit you."

He laughed and opened the speeder's cargo compartment. "Uncle Owen used to say a working man didn't have time to scrape the skin off his face every day. And brushing sand out of a beard is easier than trying to keep your face from burning. You really should stay under the canopy." He pulled a large, heavy bundle out of the compartment and hefted it to his shoulder. "This sun's not good for you."

"I'll come back if I get uncomfortable. And don't forget, you're not used to it anymore, either."

He grunted as they headed for the area behind the farm's main dome. "'Pale as a spacer,' as my aunt used to say." He swallowed deeply. He half-expected to see them coming up the entry steps, the gruff but kind couple who'd spent nineteen years protecting and caring for him. He dropped the bundle, unwrapped the canvas from around it, and pulled out a collapsible shovel. Leia had wandered over to the three grave markers, where she knelt and began to read.

"Aika Harun Lars. Cliegg Lars. Shmi Skywalker Lars." She reached out and gently brushed her fingers over the last name. "Our grandmother."

Luke came to stand next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "She was his second wife. They both died before I was born, but Aunt Beru told me stories. She said they loved each other very much. All the images we had of them were destroyed when a sandstorm blew a hole in the west wall of the house."

Leia looked up and smiled. "The stones you chose will go perfectly with these." She watched Luke take ten paces from Shmi's stone. 

"This is where Ben and I buried them. There wasn't time for anything else. And when we came back here last year, we had so many other things to do. For the living."

He worked through the afternoon, Leia stopping him for rest, food, and water at regular intervals. By the time the first sun had begun to sink into the horizon, he was finished. They stood together, regarding the three new stones that cast their long shadows over the sand.

In voices barely above a whisper, they read the names together. "Owen Lars. Beru Whitesun Lars. Anakin Skywalker." Everything of Anakin that had survived the fire was buried on Endor, but Luke knew in his heart that he and his mother would have wanted to be remembered together, here where it had all begun. 

"Let's go," he finally said.

She squeezed his hand. "Are you sure? No more unfinished business?"

"No. I've got everything I need from here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some other things planned for this chapter, but some things just go the way they're going to go no matter what you intend.
> 
> Came back in to fix typos and bits of dialog that weren't clear.

**Author's Note:**

> It's entirely possible I've gotten technical details of the Falcon wrong. My time online is limited, so if I'd had to wait until I could do that kind of research I probably wouldn't have written the story at all.
> 
>  _"Hagwa!"_ is Huttese for "Don't!"


End file.
